EXCERPT: AWARD WINNING SHORT STORY
THE BLESSING WAY
by
Joyce
Shaughnessy
As she
stepped out on the deck, Kate could see the enormous fire covering the horizon.
The blaze was so close to her house that she could feel the intense heat and
hear the crackling of the huge inferno. Her long, silky black hair was pulled
in the back and tied with a leather string in which rested a single eagle
feather.
Tears of
sadness rolled down her high cheekbones as she witnessed the destruction of the
land handed down for generations by her Navajo tribe. The dry pine trees only
added fuel to the inferno. Kate Eagle Feather was known as a Yenene or “healer”
among her tribe. Her ancestors had been well respected medicine men and women,
and as such, they possessed mystical powers.
Kate
walked into the house and put her arm around her daughter. Nuna was only eight
but understood what the fires meant. She knew she’d never return to this house
again, but she didn’t mourn it the way her Mama did. There would always be room
for them in someone else’s home, because they were all of the same Navajo
family.
Last
night, Kate had seen a black raven looking directly at her and heard a rooster
crow. Both signs meant death was near. Somehow she needed to show Nuna the
Blessing Way, the return to harmony between nature and Mother Earth unsettled
by drought and hot conditions.
Kate
looked up and saw a small house in the corner of the room. It was surrounded by
burning fire, and she fell onto her knees, lost in time and reality. As she
stared at the vision, strange men with torches appeared, and Kate saw her own body being held captive by ropes. The men were yelling, “Devil!
Witch!”
Kate
instinctively knew what it meant. This was her past, when people outside her
world hadn’t understood the healing powers she possessed. She had heard tales
about it all her life – how people had burned healers at the stake, because
they believed they were possessed by the Devil. She felt that this vision meant that she must sacrifice her own life in order to return harmony to her
world, but for now she had to consider Nuna. What would happen to her? She put
her head in her hands.
“Mama,
what do you see now?”
“I see
death, Nuna.”
“Whose
death, Mama?”
Still
seeing the vision before her, she answered, “Mine.”
There was
a forceful knock on the door, and the vision disappeared. Kate answered the
door, and a trooper was there. “You need to leave, ma’am.”
“We were
just leaving.”
The
trooper nodded and left.
Kate
turned and said, “Nuna, do you have everything you want? Your teddy?”
“Yes,
ma’am.” Tears were welling up in her eyes. “Are you going to die, Mama?”
“No,
sweetheart. Not yet at least. Let’s go.
Once in
the car, Kate stopped at the end of the driveway and stared at the only house
she had known her entire life. She knew that in an hour or so, the fire would
be eating away at the roof.
When they
arrived at the Council House, Kate noticed everyone was there except their
Council Chief, Tom Running Water.
Kate
asked Mary, “Where’s Tom?”
“I have
no idea. I talked to him earlier this morning and he said he was loading his
Jeep. He should have been here by now.”
“Has
anyone tried to call him since then?”
“Yes, but
there was no answer.”
Kate
said, “I’m going to check on him. Nuna, you stay close to the others.”
Nuna
replied, “Be careful, Mama,” still nervous about the vision.
“Don’t
worry, sweetheart. I’ll be careful. I just need to check on Tom.” She knew her
vision this morning, her purpose, was somehow connected to finding Tom.
Kate was
met with a burning house when she reached Tom’s. She jumped out of the car and
ran toward it yelling, “Tom! Tom, it’s Kate!”
Two
firefighters ran up to her, and she frantically asked, “Where’s Tom? He lives
here by himself.”
One of
them said, “Don’t know. You need to leave right now for your own safety!”
“I can’t.
I have no choice.”
Kate ran
back to her car and grabbed a blanket to cover her body. She ran for the
garage, hoping that Tom was in there and got caught before he could leave.
“Tom! Tom!”
She could
barely see anything but fire and smoke, but she kept running inside. She saw
him inside, lying on the step from his house to the garage. “Tom, get up! Get
up!”
Kate was
coughing uncontrollably, inhaling smoke when she reached him. Trying to stay as
close to the ground as possible, she dragged him across the floor. As she reached
the garage door the firemen ran to them and took them to paramedics.
After she
was satisfied that Tom was okay and she was able to see, Kate looked up and saw
a lone eagle sitting at the very edge of the burning forest.
She
thought, “Why? He would know better than to come here.” Then she realized that
he was there for a purpose. Seeing an eagle meant luck, a savior. She knew why.
It was there as a sign that she had brought all them through The Blessing Way
into life.
Kate
couldn’t wait to see Nuna. They had a life now. They had come through the
burning fire.
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